Venezuela withdrawing from regional human rights court

July 24, 2012|Reuters

CARACAS, July 24 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President HugoChavez said on Tuesday the South American nation is withdrawingfrom a regional human rights court that Latin America's leftistleaders have increasingly criticized as a pawn of Washington.

Allies of Venezuela including Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaraguahave accused the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ofimproperly weighing in on disputes still being heard in domesticcourts and working to undermine leftist governments.

"Venezuela is withdrawing from the Inter-American Court ofHuman Rights, out of dignity, and we accuse them before theworld of being unfit to call themselves a human rights group,"Chavez said during a military ceremony.

The move came on the heels of a ruling by the court sayingVenezuela had violated the rights of a man convicted of bombingdiplomatic offices of Spain and Colombia in Caracas, arguingjail conditions were deplorable.

The man in question, Raul Diaz, was sentenced to nine yearsin prison but fled to the United States after winning aconditional release, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Chavez tasked a council of state made upof allies to study whether or not Venezuela should remain in thegroup.

The Costa Rica-based tribunal, part of the Washington-basedOrganization of American States, or OAS, has heard a series ofcases accusing the Chavez government of authoritarianism andrights abuses during his 13-year rule.

Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, say the OASbody provides crucial protections for citizens in countries withweak judiciaries or a history of authoritarian leaders.

Chavez, who is leading in polls ahead of a re-election bidon Oct. 7, routinely scoffs at those accusations.

The court's sister organization, the Inter-AmericanCommission on Human Rights, has also been criticized formeddling in the affairs of its member nations. Brazil last yearupbraided the group for urging a halt to the construction of ahydroelectric dam along a tributary to the Amazon River.

The OAS in June postponed the thorny issue of reforming thehuman rights commission for six months.